Some Blog Site

I was shopping for some various items, and I saw a very specific category. I didn’t know there was much of a market, but apparently people have a bunch of these as pets.

I’d like to see what a canned cat looks like. My guess is, if the cat is canned, it’s not going to be eating much.

And here’s the other aisle:

For those of you who aren’t Mario Kart double-dash fans, here’s what a dry cat looks like:

We have a DVD with some music on it. I wanted to be able to play the music in our vehicles and various other places that don’t play DVDs – a valid case of the fair-use doctrine, if you ask me.

I figured it should be straightforward – the laptop can play DVDs, and the laptop can burn CDs, therefore the laptop should be able to take the audio part of the DVD and save it off.

But it’s not that easy.

The DVD player won’t save audio.

And when I tried just using either Sound Recorder or Audacity to record the audio as I played the DVD, but it came out warbly. Like it was underwater or something.

So I figured someone out there has written a utility that would grab the audio from a DVD and save it as a standard audio file.
Read the rest of this entry »

I try not to upgrade my software.

For reference, here is an example of what you might see sometimes when you start a program:

If I were in charge of the wording on the upgrade notices, here is what it would look like:

We were curious, could a bank find more ways to annoy people?

After leaving a few voicemails, we were curious – where have the customers gone?

That was my attempt at parodying [unnamed bank]’s recent marketing plan. But it was inspired by actual events – just paying my mortgage.

You see, I have my mortgage through them but I don’t have anything else – no checking or savings account with them. They have a branch a mile or so from my workplace, so, to save a stamp, I would stop by on my commute home and pay the monthly mortgage bill in person.

The teller offered me a sum of money if I would open a checking account with them. Since I was planning on getting a new mortgage in the near future, I declined. No sense changing over checks, direct deposit info, etc. for a few months only to have the new mortgage with someone else.

But the next time, she gave me a pamphlet and business card for the banker lady who could setup the account. Rather than argue, I said “Sure, I’ll look at it” and went on with my life.

A week later, my phone rang. It was not a number I recognized, so I let it go to voicemail. It was the banker lady, who left her phone number and asked me to call her back. “No way,” I thought to myself. “I’m not voluntarily subjecting myself to a sales pitch.”

Two days later, the phone rang again. This time, I recognized her number, so I let it go to voicemail. Her message said she had to discuss my mortgage with me. Nice try, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

A week later, I got my normal mortgage statement in the mail.

I wrote a check and put a stamp on the return envelope. I am not going back to that branch ever again.

It’s not our anniversary, but I thought I’d share a poem I wrote for my wife.

I think that I shall never see
A woman lovely quite as thee.

A thee who keeps her family fed
By gath’ring food and baking bread;

A thee who looks to God all day,
And lifts her holy arms to pray;

A thee who may in summer wear
A splash of sunscreen in her hair;

Upon whom God bestowed the joys
Of living in a house of boys.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can bring me thee.

With apologies to Joyce Kilmer.

Also, for those interested, this is not iambic pentameter. It is iambic quadrameter.

When I saw Tangled, I noticed how large the princess’ eyes were.

Then Frozen came out, and their eyes were equally as large, it seemed. I figured that the new generation of CG animators favored large eyes as the favored style of beauty. But I also wondered if this could be quantified.

So I set out to objectively quantify it. It being the size of each Disney princess’ eyes relative to her face, as a percentage.

Here is my conclusion:

No, the relative eye sizes are not increasing. Rather, it is the wider head shape that makes it seem that way.

The winner is actually Tiana.

Here are the data to support that:
Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a list of things you don’t want to hear your spouse say, if you have small children:

• Where is that water coming from?
  It’s bad enough if it’s on the kitchen floor. Worse if it’s on the bathroom floor. Worst is if you hear that when your spouse is in the room below the kids’ bathtub.
• I thought you had him…
  It’s bad enough if you don’t know where the child is. Even worse if your spouse doesn’t either.
• Please tell me that’s chocolate.
  It’s bad enough to find a mystery substance. Even worse if you find it on your khaki pants.
• Why is it so quiet?
  It’s bad enough when you have to get up from what you were doing to see what the kids are doing. Even worse when you actually find out what they are doing.
• Here, he’s all yours.
  Enough said.

For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—

2 Corinthians 7:8